Edith Ballinger Price (1897–1997) was a prolific writer and illustrator of children's books, best known for the imaginative stories and illustrations she created for 37 different books and stories. The granddaughter of landscape painter

William Trost Richards William Trost Richards (November 14, 1833 – November 8, 1905) was an American landscape artist. He was associated with both the Hudson River School and the American Pre-Raphaelite movement. Biography William Trost Richards was born on Novembe ...

, who first inspired her to draw, Price trained at Boston's

School of the Museum of Fine Arts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachus ...

, the New York Art Students League and the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

. Oft-published in general-interest magazines like '' Colliers'' and those aimed at children, like '' St. Nicholas Magazine'', she was also notable as one of the chief founders of the Brownies, the junior version of the Girl Scouts.

Career

Price's back list includes her first novel ''Blue Magic'' (1919), ''the Bottle Man'' (1920), ''Silver Shoal Light'', ''The Happy Venture'' (1920), and ''My Lady Lee'' (1925). She also collaborated with other authors, including Margaret C. Getchell for the 1916 book ''Cloudbird'', the dream-like adventures of a small girl named Dorothy Ann and the animals she meets. For the book, Price's design and illustration appeared in conventional spots at the beginning and end of chapters, as well as in more unexpected places where, depending on the content, small silhouettes of bears, roosters, herons, turtles and other creatures jumped into small spaces within the text itself. Two years later, Price published ''Blue Magic'', first in serialized form for '' St. Nicholas Magazine'' in 1918, then the following year for

The Century Company The Century Company was an American publishing company, founded in 1881. History It was originally a subsidiary of Charles Scribner's Sons, named Scribners and Company, but was bought by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associ ...

. The playful plot tells the story of seven-year-old Fen, an invalid traveling with his family in Egypt and Italy, but prevented by poor health from leaving their yacht. He is befriended by an old family connection who, to amuse him, pretends to be a blue djinn named Siddereticus.

Other pursuits

A devotee of the Girl Scouts, she helped found the Brownie Scouts program, which was designed for children not yet old enough to join the Girl Scouts. She authored their first handbook, as well as several Girl Scout-related magazines, including ''the American Girl'', '' Girl's Guide Gazette'' and '' Girls Today'', and she served as the organization's national chair from 1925 to 1932. Price knew a large number of traditional folk songs, which she was recorded singing by the folklorist

Helen Hartness Flanders Helen Hartness Flanders (May 19, 1890 – May 23, 1972), a native of the U.S. state of Vermont, was an internationally recognized ballad collector and an authority on the folk music found in New England and the British Isles. At the initiati ...

in 1945. Songs in her repertoire included some of the famous

Child Ballads The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...

such as " The Two Sisters", " Edward", " The Cruel Brother", " Gypsy Davey" and " Jamie Douglas", all of which can be heard online via the Helen Hartness Flanders Collection.

Gallery

(Selection was limited by availability.) File:The Happy Venture, Pg 201.jpg, Illustration for ''The Happy Venture'' File:Illus 01--SisterEloise.jpg, Illustration for the short story "Sister Eloise" File:Illus 03--SisterEloise.jpg, Illustration for the short story "Sister Eloise" File:UsAndTheBottleMan Pg 107.jpg, Illustration from ''Us and the Bottleman'' File:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu, ''Fortune of the Indies'' File:Ballinger Price--Us and the Bottle Man.djvu, ''Us and the Bottleman'' File:The happy venture (IA happyventure00pric).pdf, ''The Happy Venture'' File:American Foundation for the Blind bookplate.jpg, A book plate in honor of both the American Foundation for the Blind and Price's daughter File:Bear and swan illustrations by Edith Ballinger Price for Margaret C. Getchell. (1916) The Cloud Bird, Worcester, MA — The Davis Press Inc, p. 70.pdf, A bear and a swan peer in from the margin of the page in ''Cloudbird,'' which Price illustrated

References

External links

* * * Works by or about Edith B. Price in libraries (

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

catalog) * * *
The Happy Venture
' at the Library of Congress
Guide to the Edith Price papers at the University of Oregon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Edith B. 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American illustrators American women illustrators 20th-century American women writers American children's writers American centenarians Women centenarians 1897 births 1997 deaths American mystery writers American historical fiction writers American detective fiction writers American writers of young adult literature